The present invention is directed to an improved correlation spectrometer and more specifically to a spectrometer which is capable of producing an electrical output proportional to any arbitrary linear combination of source spectral intensities, without physically scanning in wavelength.
As discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,578,980 to Decker et al., typical spectroscopic techniques in which the intensity of each wavelength band of interest is recorded in sequence are unsuitable for analysis of a natural light source which is short lived. In addition, the required calculations may be complex and time-consuming.
Decker suggests the use of a movable mask having a series of overlapping arrays. However, this technique still requires complex computations and a mechanical mask moving arrangement.